Causal Bayesian network for tagging syntactical structure of Croatian sentences

Paper describes tagging syntactical structure of Croatian language sentences using causal Bayesian network. In the first part of the paper we describe Bayesian model for tagging sentences. Base on this idea, we will test our model on Croatian language sentences on Database of grammatical sentences of Croatian language (http://infoz.ffzg.hr / tepes /). This paper is result of our new research connected with the paper hidden Markov model for tagging of Croatian language texts for project Linguistic Analysis of The European languages and the paper Probability distribution on the parse trees for the project Annotated database and syntactic structure of Croatian languages.     

Probability distribution on the parse trees

Paper describes probability distribution on the parse trees of natural language by using Bayesian networks. First parts of the paper describes probabilistic context-free grammar and parse trees. In the second part of the paper, Bayesian network was modelled and joint probability distribution on their vertex. On these theoretical ideas, in the third part, we describe our model tested on Database of grammatical sentences of Croatian language (http:/ /infoz.ffzg.hr / tepes /). At the end was presented a backward procedure and evaluation of our results.     

Functional Cerebral Asymmetry and Principles of Analysis of Lexical and Grammatical Material

This article deals with the role of functional cerebral asymmetry in the analysis of lexical and grammatical material. The author examined healthy test subjects with various types of cerebral organization of speech activity; i.e., with speech lateralization in the left and right hemispheres and bilateral speech lateralization. The test subjects with speech lateralization in the left hemisphere and bilateral lateralization are shown to prefer the formal-grammatical principle of the classification of both lexemes (distinguishing antonyms and synonyms) and grammatical constructions (distinguishing active and passive sentences). The test subjects with speech lateralization in the right hemisphere fail to follow the formal-grammatical principle of the classification of either lexemes (synonyms disappear) or grammatical constructions (active and passive sentences are united). The data obtained show that the linguistic abilities are determined by the functional specialization of the hemispheres.     

Inside the Syntactic Box: The Neural Correlates of the Functional and Positional Level in Covert Sentence Production

The aim of the present fMRI study was to investigate the neural circuits of two stages of grammatical encoding in sentence production. Participants covertly produced sentences on the basis of three words (one verb and two nouns). In the functional level condition both nouns were animate and so were potential competitors for the grammatical function of subject. In the positional level condition the first noun was animate whereas the second was inanimate. We found activation of Broca''s and adjacent areas, previously indicated as responsible for syntactic processing. Additionally, a later onset of the activation in three brain areas in the functional level condition suggests that there is indeed a competition for assignment of subjecthood. The results constrain theories of grammatical encoding, which differ in whether they assume two separate processing levels or only one.     

Precursors to natural grammar learning: preliminary evidence from 4-month-old infants

When learning a new language, grammar--although difficult--is very important, as grammatical rules determine the relations between the words in a sentence. There is evidence that very young infants can detect rules determining the relation between neighbouring syllables in short syllable sequences. A critical feature of all natural languages, however, is that many grammatical rules concern the dependency relation between non-neighbouring words or elements in a sentence i.e. between an auxiliary and verb inflection as in is singing. Thus, the issue of when and how children begin to recognize such non-adjacent dependencies is fundamental to our understanding of language acquisition. Here, we use brain potential measures to demonstrate that the ability to recognize dependencies between non-adjacent elements in a novel natural language is observable by the age of 4 months. Brain responses indicate that 4-month-old German infants discriminate between grammatical and ungrammatical dependencies in auditorily presented Italian sentences after only brief exposure to correct sentences of the same type. As the grammatical dependencies are realized by phonologically distinct syllables the present data most likely reflect phonologically based implicit learning mechanisms which can serve as a precursor to later grammar learning.     

Age-related characteristics of the formation of neurophysiological mechanisms of the phonemic, grammatical, and semantic linguistic levels

The structure of regional interactions of brain bioelectric potentials has been studied during performance by adults (n = 18) and children aged five to six (n = 15) and eight to nine years (n = 17) of three analytical verbal tasks: recognition of a given phoneme in the context of auditory presented words and recognition of grammatical and semantic mistakes in auditory presented sentences. According to the data of cross-correlation and coherent EEG analyses, adults and, to a lesser extent, children of both age groups showed a noticeable intensification of interhemispheric interaction during the performance of all three tasks, especially between temporal areas, with relatively minor changes in ipsilateral EEG relations. Children were shown to have elements of immaturity of neurophysiological mechanisms underlying various aspects of the language function, such as the analysis of the grammatical formation of a verbal utterance and the semantic content of a phrase. The results also suggest that the level of maturation of neurophysiological mechanisms underlying phonemic analysis is somewhat higher at these age stages than the level of maturity of central mechanisms responsible for the analysis of the semantic content and grammatical construction of a phrase. Quantitative comparison of the patterns of spatial interaction of cortical bioelectric potentials recorded during the performance of the tasks related to different linguistic levels showed a high degree of their statistical similarity for each of the age groups. The findings confirm the assumption that the distributive central maintenance of different linguistic levels is based on topologically close constellations of interacting cortical areas and on similar organization of their regional interactions.     

The Croatian model of university education for health professionals

In all European countries healthcare professions are regulated by law. In Croatia, the legally--regulated professions are: medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, physiotherapy and midwifery, as well as radiographers, occupational therapists and medical laboratory technicians. Current education of health professionals in Croatia is traditional, inadequate and poorly harmonized with current educational trends, as well as with requirements and directives of European Commission. This Croatian model for education of health professionals at university level follows the recommendations specified in Croatian Qualification Framework: (i) learning outcomes are competency-based; (ii) mobility of students and faculty is encouraged; (iii) the means of quality assurance are anticipated. The Croatian model of university education for health professionals will make sure that all procedures, specified in the European and Croatian Qualification Framework addressing recognizability of study programs, mobility, learning outcomes, quality assurance and reliability of required qualifications are successfully completed.     

Electrical brain responses in language-impaired children reveal grammar-specific deficits

Background

Scientific and public fascination with human language have included intensive scrutiny of language disorders as a new window onto the biological foundations of language and its evolutionary origins. Specific language impairment (SLI), which affects over 7% of children, is one such disorder. SLI has received robust scientific attention, in part because of its recent linkage to a specific gene and loci on chromosomes and in part because of the prevailing question regarding the scope of its language impairment: Does the disorder impact the general ability to segment and process language or a specific ability to compute grammar? Here we provide novel electrophysiological data showing a domain-specific deficit within the grammar of language that has been hitherto undetectable through behavioural data alone.

Methods and Findings

We presented participants with Grammatical(G)-SLI, age-matched controls, and younger child and adult controls, with questions containing syntactic violations and sentences containing semantic violations. Electrophysiological brain responses revealed a selective impairment to only neural circuitry that is specific to grammatical processing in G-SLI. Furthermore, the participants with G-SLI appeared to be partially compensating for their syntactic deficit by using neural circuitry associated with semantic processing and all non-grammar-specific and low-level auditory neural responses were normal.

Conclusions

The findings indicate that grammatical neural circuitry underlying language is a developmentally unique system in the functional architecture of the brain, and this complex higher cognitive system can be selectively impaired. The findings advance fundamental understanding about how cognitive systems develop and all human language is represented and processed in the brain.     

Plants and geographical names in Croatia

The main purpose of this paper is to present some general observations, regularities and insights into a complex relationship between plants and people through symbolic systems like geographical names on the territory of Croatia. The basic sources of data for this research were maps from atlas of Croatia of the scale 1:100000. Five groups of maps or areas were selected in order to represent main Croatian phytogeographic regions. A selection of toponyms from each of the map was made in which the name for a plant in Croatian language was recognized (phytotoponyms). Results showed that of all plant names recognized in geographical names the most represented are trees, and among them birch and oak the most. Furthermore, an attempt was made to explain the presence of the most represented plant species in the phytotoponyms in the light of general phytogeographical and sociocultural differences and similarities of comparing areas. The findings confirm an expectation that the genera of climazonal vegetation of particular area are the most represented among the phytotoponyms. Nevertheless, there are ample examples where representation of a plant name in the names of human environment can only be ascribed to ethno-linguistic and socio-cultural motives. Despite the reductionist character of applied methodology, this research also points out some advantages of this approach for ethnobotanic and ethnolinguistic studies of greater areas of human environment.     

Syntactic Computation in the Human Brain: The Degree of Merger as a Key Factor

Our goal of this study is to characterize the functions of language areas in most precise terms. Previous neuroimaging studies have reported that more complex sentences elicit larger activations in the left inferior frontal gyrus (L. F3op/F3t), although the most critical factor still remains to be identified. We hypothesize that pseudowords with grammatical particles and morphosyntactic information alone impose a construction of syntactic structures, just like normal sentences, and that “the Degree of Merger” (DoM) in recursively merged sentences parametrically modulates neural activations. Using jabberwocky sentences with distinct constructions, we fitted various parametric models of syntactic, other linguistic, and nonlinguistic factors to activations measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging. We demonstrated that the models of DoM and “DoM+number of Search (searching syntactic features)” were the best to explain activations in the L. F3op/F3t and supramarginal gyrus (L. SMG), respectively. We further introduced letter strings, which had neither lexical associations nor grammatical particles, but retained both matching orders and symbol orders of sentences. By directly contrasting jabberwocky sentences with letter strings, localized activations in L. F3op/F3t and L. SMG were indeed independent of matching orders and symbol orders. Moreover, by using dynamic causal modeling, we found that the model with a inhibitory modulatory effect for the bottom-up connectivity from L. SMG to L. F3op/F3t was the best one. For this best model, the top-down connection from L. F3op/F3t to L. SMG was significantly positive. By using diffusion-tensor imaging, we confirmed that the left dorsal pathway of the superior longitudinal and arcuate fasciculi consistently connected these regions. Lastly, we established that nonlinguistic order-related and error-related factors significantly activated the right (R.) lateral premotor cortex and R. F3op/F3t, respectively. These results indicate that the identified network of L. F3op/F3t and L. SMG subserves the calculation of DoM in recursively merged sentences.     

Do not resonate with actions: sentence polarity modulates cortico-spinal excitability during action-related sentence reading

Background

Theories of embodied language suggest that the motor system is differentially called into action when processing motor-related versus abstract content words or sentences. It has been recently shown that processing negative polarity action-related sentences modulates neural activity of premotor and motor cortices.

Methods and Findings

We sought to determine whether reading negative polarity sentences brought about differential modulation of cortico-spinal motor excitability depending on processing hand-action related or abstract sentences. Facilitatory paired-pulses Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (pp-TMS) was applied to the primary motor representation of the right-hand and the recorded amplitude of induced motor-evoked potentials (MEP) was used to index M1 activity during passive reading of either hand-action related or abstract content sentences presented in both negative and affirmative polarity. Results showed that the cortico-spinal excitability was affected by sentence polarity only in the hand-action related condition. Indeed, in keeping with previous TMS studies, reading positive polarity, hand action-related sentences suppressed cortico-spinal reactivity. This effect was absent when reading hand action-related negative polarity sentences. Moreover, no modulation of cortico-spinal reactivity was associated with either negative or positive polarity abstract sentences.

Conclusions

Our results indicate that grammatical cues prompting motor negation reduce the cortico-spinal suppression associated with affirmative action sentences reading and thus suggest that motor simulative processes underlying the embodiment may involve even syntactic features of language.     

The evolutionary dynamics of grammar acquisition

Grammar is the computational system of language. It is a set of rules that specifies how to construct sentences out of words. Grammar is the basis of the unlimited expressibility of human language. Children acquire the grammar of their native language without formal education simply by hearing a number of sample sentences. Children could not solve this learning task if they did not have some pre-formed expectations. In other words, children have to evaluate the sample sentences and choose one grammar out of a limited set of candidate grammars. The restricted search space and the mechanism which allows to evaluate the sample sentences is called universal grammar. Universal grammar cannot be learned; it must be in place when the learning process starts. In this paper, we design a mathematical theory that places the problem of language acquisition into an evolutionary context. We formulate equations for the population dynamics of communication and grammar learning. We ask how accurate children have to learn the grammar of their parents' language for a population of individuals to evolve and maintain a coherent grammatical system. It turns out that there is a maximum error tolerance for which a predominant grammar is stable. We calculate the maximum size of the search space that is compatible with coherent communication in a population. Thus, we specify the conditions for the evolution of universal grammar.     

Croatian Muslims--immigrant community of indigenous Europeans

Subject of this paper is muslim population in Croatia. Its unique position as community of muslim immigrants with indigenous European origin give us plenty of research opportunities. Long history of contacts between muslims and christians on Croatian-Bosnian border evolved in many ways and resulted with today's reality that muslims are part of Croatian society. In modern age, since austrian occupation of Bosnia in 1878. bosnian muslims came to Croatia as workers, refugees, members of state apparatus, students etc. Their descendants are now Croatian citizens in third and fourth generation. Muslims managed to establish formal islamic community. On the personal level, they mix their feeling of belonging with feeling of origin. They act as equal part of Croatian society on whole range of social levels.     

A validation study of appropriate phonological verbal fluency stimulus letters for use with croatian speaking individuals

The aim of this study is to determine the word frequency for all thirty letters of the Croatian alphabet and to collect normative data for the letter fluency task in Croatian speakers. Ninety two healthy participants were given each of the Croatian letters, and asked to generate as many words as possible in 60 seconds for each letter Results suggested that participants generated most frequently words starting with the letters as follows: "K", "P", "S" and "M".     

Specialization of cerebral hemispheres in the perception of Russian intonations

Relations between the brain hemispheres were studied during the human perception of various types of Russian intonations. Fifty healthy subjects with normal hearing took part in the tests based on the method of monaural presentation of stimuli—the sentences that represented the main kinds of Russian emotional and linguistic intonations. The linguistic intonations expressed: various communicative types of sentences; completeness/incompleteness of a statement; various types of the syntagmatic segmentation of the statements; various logical stress. Sentences that required the identification of the emotion quality were used to study the perception of emotional intonations. The results of statistical analysis of latent periods and errors made by the test subjects demonstrated a significant preference of theright hemisphere in perceiving emotional intonations and complete/incomplete sentences; sentences with different logical stress were perceived mainly by theleft hemisphere. No significant differences were found in the perception of various communicative types of sentences and statements with different syntagmatic segmentation. The obtained data also testify to a difference in the degree of the involvement of human hemispheres in the perception and analysis of prosodic characteristics of the speech in males and females.     

Social conditioning of health behaviors among adults in Croatia: the CroHort study

The aim of this study was to examine the social conditioning of health behaviors of adults in Croatia, based on the data from Croatian Adult Health Survey 2003. This cross-sectional study on a representative random sample of 9070 Croatian adults showed that obesity was significantly and socially conditioned in women, whereas for men the indication of social conditioning has not reached a statistically significant level. Health behaviors were socially conditioned in both sexes. Men's living habits were more irregular than those of women. Compared with women, men consumed more cured meat products, consumed alcohol excessivelly and smoked cigarettes more often, whereas they ate less fruits and vegetables. Health promotion strategies based on the behavioral correlates of overweight and obesity are needed to prevent excess weight gain in the Croatian population. While for men a unique educational model is applicable, women require more specialized programs, adapted to their social background.     

EBIMed--text crunching to gather facts for proteins from Medline

To allow efficient and systematic retrieval of statements from Medline we have developed EBIMed, a service that combines document retrieval with co-occurrence-based analysis of Medline abstracts. Upon keyword query, EBIMed retrieves the abstracts from EMBL-EBI's installation of Medline and filters for sentences that contain biomedical terminology maintained in public bioinformatics resources. The extracted sentences and terminology are used to generate an overview table on proteins, Gene Ontology (GO) annotations, drugs and species used in the same biological context. All terms in retrieved abstracts and extracted sentences are linked to their entries in biomedical databases. We assessed the quality of the identification of terms and relations in the retrieved sentences. More than 90% of the protein names found indeed represented a protein. According to the analysis of four protein-protein pairs from the Wnt pathway we estimated that 37% of the statements containing such a pair mentioned a meaningful interaction and clarified the interaction of Dkk with LRP. We conclude that EBIMed improves access to information where proteins and drugs are involved in the same biological process, e.g. statements with GO annotations of proteins, protein-protein interactions and effects of drugs on proteins. AVAILABILITY: Available at http://www.ebi.ac.uk/Rebholz-srv/ebimed     

History, genetic differentiation and conservation strategies for disjunct populations of Sibiraea species from Southeastern Europe and Asia

The genetic structure of Croatian Sibirea (Sibiraea croatica), a rare and endemic tertiary relic of Croatian and Herzegovinian flora, and its relationship with sibirea from Southern Russia and Southern Siberia (Sibiraea altaiensis) was studied using amplification, restriction and sequencing of the ITS region in genomic DNA and cpDNA and their comparisons with sequences of the Rosaceae species obtained from GenBank. The restriction analysis and separation in agarose gel showed no differences in length of the digested cpDNA between or within populations. Sequencing showed only minor variability between populations. Only a minor difference of 6 bp duplication in DNA amplified with ccmp 10-R and trnM primer pair was noticed in two geographically distinct populations. No differences in the restriction pattern for the ITS region in genomic rDNA indicates that all samples of sibirea belong to the same species since the ITS region was proven to be conserved within one taxonomic species. The minor differences that were␣obtained support the hypothesis that sibirea is an old tertiary relic that shows a minor variability, confirming previous preliminary results from comparisons of the Croatian and Altaic sibireas at the morphological level. Our data suggests that Croatian sibirea from the Balkan is a disjunct population identical to the Altaic species. Due to its disjunct occurrence in Southeastern Europe, the endemic status in the Dinarics, a relic that survived the glaciations, it deserves active conservation approaches through support of traditional use of high-mountain pastures for reducing natural reforestation of sibirea ancient sites.     

PathFinder: reconstruction and dynamic visualization of metabolic pathways

MOTIVATION: Beyond methods for a gene-wise annotation and analysis of sequenced genomes new automated methods for functional analysis on a higher level are needed. The identification of realized metabolic pathways provides valuable information on gene expression and regulation. Detection of incomplete pathways helps to improve a constantly evolving genome annotation or discover alternative biochemical pathways. To utilize automated genome analysis on the level of metabolic pathways new methods for the dynamic representation and visualization of pathways are needed. RESULTS: PathFinder is a tool for the dynamic visualization of metabolic pathways based on annotation data. Pathways are represented as directed acyclic graphs, graph layout algorithms accomplish the dynamic drawing and visualization of the metabolic maps. A more detailed analysis of the input data on the level of biochemical pathways helps to identify genes and detect improper parts of annotations. As an Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) based internet application PathFinder reads a list of EC-numbers or a given annotation in EMBL- or Genbank-format and dynamically generates pathway graphs.